The present invention relates to a machine for handling articles such as eggs and more particularly to the grouping and orienting of these articles in the pockets of a transport means such as a carton or tray.
Prior art devices have had difficulites in maintaining a smooth high-spaced operation. The pressure of a large supply of articles fed into those machines has caused breakage from stresses due to jamming of eggs into following eggs and lack of control of entry of eggs into receiving pockets.
For example, passing of eggs or similar articles from rollers directly into receiving pockets may be workable at lower packing speeds but in the high speed operation of the present invention where cycle time of 0.7 to 1.0 second may be desired, the lack of control of the exact moment the egg falls free from the roller conveyor and lack of full control of entry into the receiving pockets would present problems.
For grouping eggs for packing it is necessary to restrain the filled channels until every channel has an egg at its discharge point. The common prior art practice is to use a gate mechanism or paddle wheel escapement for this purpose. As a result, an edge of some sort must be forced between the egg being passed and the succeeding egg which must be restrained until the next index cycle. The present invention has eliminated the use of any gate escapement mechanism while attempting to avoid double feeds.
The present invention has attempted to solve the problems of the prior art by components which are effective under high-speed conditions.